Category: VersionTracker

If you’re anything like me, you like to try and keep all of your Mac’s software up-to-date. Until recently, your only options were Software Update and following software sites like MacUpdate. The newly created App Store has certainly made this easier but, like with Software Update, you’re limited to software available in the App Store […]

Have you been to VersionTracker.com lately? If you try today, you’ll be redirected to the CNET site, where you’ll get a brief explanation that the venerable VersionTracker site is now a branded part of the CNET empire.

VersionTracker Pro, a paid feature, will be discontinued after the current subscriptions run out. The VersionTracker newsletters will continue, but they will be rebranded as CNET products. CNET has put up a page explaining the changes.

This process actually began in 2007, when CNET acquired VersionTracker, MacFixIt, and iPhone Atlas. VersionTracker goes back to 1995, when it was a Mac only site. Over time, the content expanded to include Windows software. The familiar layout of VersionTracker has been changed, and it may startle a few users. I don’t think MacFixIt was improved any by the CNET takeover, and I don’t have high hopes for VersionTracker, either, but I’m going to keep an open mind.

CNET was acquired by CBS two years ago. Other than the irritating and frequent plugs for CBS TV, the site is still useful and continues to aggressively cover all things related to tech.

If you need an alternative to VersionTracker, MacUpdate is still around, and AppFresh (based on i use this) and Logiciel are worth a look. There is also a Dashboard Widget called App Update that will check for software updates.

NetShade is an Internet security tool which conceals your IP address on the web.

NetShade will route your web connection through either a public anonymous proxy server, or NetShade’s own dedicated anonymous proxy. (The latter option is available only to registered users.) This has the effect of masking your IP address as you browse the web. Anonymous proxies are becoming very popular in this age of heightened security and privacy concerns, and NetShade provides a very effective and straightforward interface for this.

Guitar tools is a multi-platform application for Guitar Players of any style. It’s a learning tool which helps you finding scales, chords, voicing, harmony and practicing. it comes a bunch of useful features : metronome, favorites tunes, circle of fifths, diatonic scales.

Vitamin-R is a collection of tools and techniques designed to overcome the biggest productivity challenges facing today’s new caste of creative professionals: managing attention and maintaining motivation. It complements the task capturing and organizing features of modern to-do list managers, by forcing you to keep attention on a single task. Vitamin-R smooths the creative process by rejecting the dusty business book notion of self discipline and fully embracing the way our brains are truly wired. Vitamin-R breaks down large, vaguely defined tasks into a series of short “time slices” of between 10 and 30 minutes, each with specific, easily reachable and actionable objectives. During these time slices it keeps you focused on accomplishing only this one objective and provides you with mechanisms for dealing with interruptions, poor concentration, etc. Vitamin-R concentrates on getting started which allows you to break through the resistance of procrastination and creates a positive feedback loop of small achievements that get you closer to your ultimate aims. This greatly reduces the stress caused by looming deadlines and a lack of a clear direction, thus enabling you to enjoy guilt-free breaks in which you can pursue other interests. Vitamin-R provides you with the “Now & Later Board”, complete with FastType magic, to give you a place to quickly dump all those things that go through your head and allows to get back to the task at hand. While Vitamin-R assists you in getting on with your work, it also keeps a customizable record of your progress that can help you detect positive, as well as negative work patterns thus allowing you find the way that suits you best.

CROSS is a digital vinyl and MIDI DJ software for Windows and MAC platforms. MixVibes drew from its experience in audio engine and vinyl control design to deliver a new pro-DJ product. CROSS delivers the best of MixVibes’ know how in DJ software in a solid and back to basics package! This software will satisfy the expectations of professional DJs who need a powerful and reliable DJ tool.

Calico is an automatic multi-row panorama stitcher created with ease of use in mind. Unlike many other stitching programs, Calico does not limit you to a single row of images or a 3×3 mosaic. With Calico, you can shoot several rows of images or a single row. It’s your choice.

In the spirit of Notational Velocity, Nottingham an elegant notepad for Mac OS X. Designed to be lightweight and easy to use, it’s a breath of fresh air perfect for storing whatever is on your mind. Best of all, it keeps your data safe by syncing to your iPhone via Simplenote.

ShareTool: Extend Bonjour across the Internet securely. ShareTool is a fast, extremely secure, and magical way to remain connected to all your home or office networks no matter where you are physically. While connected with ShareTool, many shared (Bonjour-enabled) services on your remote home or office network automatically appear in your Finder, iTunes, iPhoto, and tons of other applications (just as they would if you were physically located at that network). For example, let’s assume you’re away for business or on vacation somewhere. With ShareTool, you would be able to:

encrypt all of your web traffic and route it through your home network.

listen to your entire home iTunes music library,

control the screen of any of your home computers,

grab that important file you forgot to bring with you,

connect to your FileMaker Pro database,

connect to your complete home iPhoto library,

print on your home computer,

and a whole lot more.

In addition, ShareTool 2 now supports connecting to multiple networks at the same time. There no longer is a limit to the number of networks you can be connected to simultaneously. Who uses ShareTool? ShareTool was designed and developed for all Mac users and many have come to rely on it’s performance and dependability. There is almost no technical know-how required and 99% of all ShareTool setups are completed with just one mouse click.

Many businesses and I.T. administrators depend on ShareTool to provide reliable and secure remote support at all times.

Lot of individuals also rely on ShareTool for assisting friends / family members and for having complete access to their own network quickly and easily. Any Mac user looking for a secure and dependable way to have complete access to their network anytime and anywhere can be a ShareTool user. The ShareTool experience is so transparent and magical, it’s almost as if you never left your own network. Being in more than one place at the same time is certainly possible when using ShareTool 2. Wherever you go, there are your Macs.

Think of spotlight for the internet: A search bar that’s always available through the press of a hot key. Just press the key, enter your search and press return to open your favorite browser with the search results.

SpiderOak is a cross-platform, multi-computer online backup, centralization, and sharing system coded in Python and C. Capabilities include comprehensive “zero knowledge” encryption, space efficient preservation of historical versions of files, and access to files across all computers from any device. Backed up folders may be include in web “Share Rooms” for easy sharing/collaboration. Great emphasis is made towards triviality of installation and operation.

DateLine is a small, simple app which displays a linear calendar on your desktop in a transparent window. It provides easy access to iCal by double clicking on a day. The background and text colors are customizable with support for transparency.

PaperCut NG for Mac is a print quota, charging, logging and monitoring tool designed for print management on multi-user networks. The software has been in use to manage printing in Windows environments since 1999 and this is PaperCut Software’s first Mac release. The software works by integrating via CUPS and supports advanced feature such as popup client, share accounts, print job filtering based on document attributes, LDAP integration, and release station for secure printing. The Mac version has all the same features as the successful Windows and Linux versions.

OnyX is a multifunction utility for Mac OS X. It allows you to verify the Startup Disk and the structure of its System files, to run misc tasks of system maintenance, to configure the hidden parameters of the Finder, Dock and of some of Apple’s own applications, to delete caches, to remove a certain number of files and folders that may become cumbersome and more.

Using my own fp multi-precision engine, fp Plugin for REALbasic adds three new data types, BigInteger, BigFloat and BigComplex. Except for available memory, there is no limitation on the size of a BigInteger. BigFloat is a multi–precision floating point number. You can set both the internal precision and the decimal output precision for BigFloat, with no limitation except for available memory. BigComplex is composed of two BigFloats. fp Plugin itself allows you to construct programs which can handle the three new data types much like doubles and integers are handled. To a large extent the new data types can be freely used with the +, -, *, and / operators, and can be used in comparisons. And most of REALbasic’s functions have been overloaded to take the new data types, where it makes sense to do so. Version 2.0 adds Euler’s Constant and the Bessel functions for both integer and non-integer orders. Version 2.5 adds the Beta Function, the Incomplete Beta Function, the Error Functions, the Exponential Integral, the Fresnel Integrals, and the Confluent Hypergeometric Function. I am releasing fp Plugin as freeware with an easy-to-meet license. It is unconditionally available for any use, but is without warranty.

fp is an Xcode C++ project which implements unlimited length integers, multi-precision floating point numbers, and multi-precision complex numbers, allowing you to find a precise solutions to functions, including Gamma, and special ones.

DockView helps you visualize the windows you currently have open and easily find the window you are looking for by clicking CMD+Tab. Features: Live previews. The previews refresh constantly so you can keep an eye on windows without activating them. Activate windows. Click anywhere on a preview to activate the window. Close windows. You can use DockView to easily close windows. Control iTunes. Pause, play and skip songs. Customizable. The previews can be any size you want. No hacks. DockView doesn’t modify the Dock or any system file.

Posts navigation

SeriouslyMac is curated by Keith Teare of chat.center. The top Mac blogs are monitored. It is intended as a convenience for those who want to monitor the ever-changing Apple ecosystem - both in terms of the products, the people and the ideas underlying their activities.
For more information see http://s.erious.ly or chat with me live through chat.center at chat.center/kteare.